Page 66 of Endless Summer: Stories
“I tried calling earlier but nobody answered,” Blair says. “So I’m standing in a phone booth at five in the morning and I charged this to my credit card, which is already maxed out. Are the twins there?”
“No,” Jessie says. “They’re… out.”
“Oh, shoot,” Blair says. “How are the kids? Did they have a nice birthday? Did anything interesting happen?”
Anything interesting like all of them seeing a skull tattoo up close and personal for the first time, like George sleeping with Blair’s best friend, like Kate and Bitsy’s geriatric antics, like Helen Dunscombe venturing out in public for the first time since her husband died of AIDS, like Kirby showing up at the front door drunk and high delivered by a person nicknamed Blowman, like Magee outdoing Martha Stewart with her hors d’oeuvres aesthetic and that rum punch, like Lorraine Crimmins showing up with the best strawberry shortcake any of them had ever tasted?
“It’s been kind of dull, actually,” Jessie says. She gives Kirby an exaggerated wink and Kirby doubles over in silent laughter.
“Even so, I wish I were there,” Blair says. “I’ve been beating myself up all day. I shouldn’t be in Paris, I should be there, in Nantucket.”
Jessie feels a rush of sympathy for her sister.Attitude adjustment complete,she thinks. Despite everything, Jessie realizes she wouldn’t have missed this weekend for all the world.
